BY:ANDY SANDALL
Citrus County Speedway – April 17th, 2010
All photos courtesy of rewingphotos.com
Drivers, fans, track staff and the whole spectrum of people from across the Florida racing family came together at Citrus County Speedway on Saturday to take part in a weekend of races to raise money for Jack Smith, founder and leading light of the KARNAC multimedia racing community. Now battling a terrible debilitating illness, the fondness and respect Jack has engendered in his many years supporting Florida racing and its drivers was obvious as the pits and grandstands filled with people representing all of Florida’s short-track racetracks and beyond, all coming to raise money to help Jack and his family through this difficult time.
But this was an evening of celebration as well as of fundraising as the racers put on a party the only way they know how – with high-speed, wheel-to-wheel racing! Top of the bill tonight would be a 50-lap showdown for a big field of Open Wheel Modifieds, while the Checkered Flag Sprints would also bring their show to the tight Inverness track. The fans would also be treated to the spectacular Dwarf Cars and regular division races for the Pure Stock, Street Stock, Truck and 4 cylinder Bomber divisions.
The afternoon kicked off with qualifying for the modified feature in front of packed grandstands, seeing the fast time set by #70 Jeremy Gerstner with a 14.480 lap, just enough to see off the late challenge of #98 Robbie Cooper who only just made it out on track in time to put in a qualifying lap. But this fast time would not put Gerstner on the front row for the race itself, thanks to the inversion set by a roll of a giant dice by Jack Smith’s daughters, in attendance for the night’s events. Rolling a six was the worst possible scenario for Gerstner, but worse was to come once it was announced that this did not mean an invert for the top 6 cars, but the top 6 rows!
So once race time came around Gerstner would find himself relegated all the way back to 12th place, effectively placing him midway in field of 24 cars. Biggest beneficiaries of the invert would be #25 LJ Grimm, sitting on pole alongside #75 Bobby Blake. With such a big field of cars on such a competitive track and featuring a great field of drivers, it was no surprise that once the green flag dropped the action instantly began as the cars nudged, bumped and pushed their way around the track, leading to a multiple-car pile-up in turn 4 amongst the leaders. Left stranded in the melee would be #01 Curtis Neumann and #03 Kyle Bookmiller, although both would be able to continue once pulled apart and back under power, even though Neumann would complete the next few laps with sparks showering the people unlucky enough to be behind him thanks to a dragging nerf bar hanging from the rear of his car.
Even with the race restarted the cars kept close and showed they were not afraid of contact, and as Gerstner looked to get back to what he must have believed was his rightful place at the front of the field, a hefty shove to the side from one of his rivals sent him high up the track and scrambling for grip, his #70 car quickly dropping back through the field while he composed himself. Now with 5 laps in the books the cars finally began to sort themselves out into some kind of order, as Grimm, Neumann and Blake pulled ahead of the chasing pack.
Neumann would soon be letting Grimm know his intentions, crawling all over the back of the leader’s rear bumper as the front two cars began to put distance between themselves and the 3rd place man. Their race was quickly halted and the cars bunched back up thanks to a caution caused by the luckless Gerstner, whose night was slowly going from bad to worse once contact in turn 4 with #61 Tony Carreno – one of the leaders of the fundraising effort who was instrumental in putting the race together – saw both cars spin out down the front straight, sending the fast-lap setter straight to the rear for the restart.
Carreno would again be at the center of the action just one lap after the green flag got racing underway once more, this time getting tangled up with the other Gerstner in the race, Jeremy’s brother #77 John Gerstner, as the two touched in turn 4 sending the #77 into a spin and forcing Carreno to stand on his brakes to avoid hitting the out of control car. This time both were sent to the rear and the race would have more luck in settling down once the green flag was dropped.
The race at the front would continue to be between Grimm and Neumann, but they now had a new car in their mirrors as Bookmiller, the other car involved in the first lap incident with Neumann, had barged his way past Blake to grab the 3rd place spot. Neumann would again make his presence felt to Grimm with taps to his rear bumper, but within two laps Bookmiller had caught the pair and the gap between the lead 3 cars and the field was growing with every turn. The fans would now be treated to the incredible sight of the top 3 cars lapping the track with inches between them in perfect order, although a glance behind to the midfield pack would have shown them that Blake had now dropped further back thanks to a pass by #11 Mark Nelson, while making a move through the field with authority was local favorite Cooper.
The halfway point of the race quickly came around as Grimm continued to do everything in his power to block the passing attempts of Neumann, all while Bookmiller continued to poke the nose of his car down the inside of both as he looked for a fast line to the front. Knowing he had to make a move soon as the laps ticked down, Neumann made his move with an audacious run on the low side in turn 4, leaning hard on Grimm’s car as he turned onto the front straight. But Grimm gave as good as he got and the #01 met firm resistance as both slid sideways out of the corner. Something had to give, and in this case it was the instigator who came off worse as Neumann lost control and span into the infield. Thanks to track rules this would see his demotion all the way back to the still mainly intact field of cars, thereby effectively ending his chances of winning the race with barely 20 laps remaining and around the same amount cars to beat to get to the front.
Lining up for the restart, now Bookmiller would be in 2nd place with Grimm ahead of him, recovering from his long and physical battle with Neumann. This fight may have taken its toll on the leader as within 2 laps of the restart Bookmiller made his move and flew under Grimm out of turn 2 to take the lead for himself. Nelson would try to follow but found the door firmly slammed shut as he pushed his nose alongside Grimm, and had to drop back and settle for 3rd. Three laps later and Nelson would decide to try again, hitting Grimm hard on his back bumper on the way into turn 1 and sending the former race leader high up the track, giving Nelson the chance to slip underneath and into 2nd before Grimm could drop back down and get back onto the racing line. Soon he would be forced to drop even further back as both Cooper and #6 Billy Bechtelheimer came underneath him to drop Grimm out of the top 5.
Back up at the front Bookmiller was using the clear track ahead of him to good advantage as he put distance between himself and Nelson, but with just 5 laps to go lapped traffic would become a factor as problems getting past #46 Doug Moff gave Nelson his chance to reel the leader back in. Although both were well clear of the field, the race between the front two was now back to just a car length between them. Dealing with the lapped cars now became the key issue in deciding the race, but Bookmiller’s swift pass of John Gerstner was not replicated by Nelson, and with two laps to go this gave the leader the breathing room he needed.
The last two laps saw both cars deal successfully with the slower traffic, but although Nelson pushed as hard as he could, Bookmiller had done the hard work to get the cushion he needed and he took the checkered flag by a car length over Nelson, with Cooper leading the rest of the field through the finish to claim 3rd place. A great win for Bookmiller who overcame a first lap spin to run a race where his move to the front was timed to perfection. Disappointment for Neumann who looked set to be a contender until his hard move on the then-leader late on in the race saw him sent to the rear of the field, and the hard luck story of the race definitely being fast qualifier Jeremy Gerstner, who got the worst possible luck with the random invert and who would pull out of the race with 10 laps to go after a number of on-track incidents ruined his night.
The other features would see big fields and plenty of passing, but also plenty of spins and cautions that broke-up the flow of the races, in some cases seeing numerous caution laps needed to reform the fields in the correct order. The evening’s feature racing had started with a field of 20 4-cylinder bombers who put on a good show for the crowds, eventually seeing #32 Jeremy Sharrone take the lead at the halfway point and fend off his rivals to take the checkered flag. A massive field of 31 Pure Stocks signed in for their race on the evening’s schedule and put on a show that took 6 caution periods to complete, but would see a good race at the front that would end with #58 Larry Welter Jr. the victor as #35 David Walls beat out #5 James Peters for 2nd. The Street Stock feature would put another win in the record books for local favorite #42 Richie Smith, who won with ease in another caution-filled race.
The Truck division provided an interesting spectacle for followers of Florida short-track racing despite having just a 6-car field. Entered in the race was #20 Anthony Sergi, more commonly seen running at the front at New Smyrna Speedway and Orlando Speedworld, but filling out the field of essentially teenage drivers was #201 Sam Watts, an established Super Late Model driver who has been a part of Sergi’s race crew this season and who took to the track in the young driver’s spare truck. Right from the green flag Watts showed his abundance of talent to race to the front and pull away from the field, a position he would hold from flag to flag despite an incredible number of cautions for spinning trucks, including one where the a young driver managed to spin during a caution lap as he headed around the track to catch up with the field behind the pace truck.
Watts would put on a demonstration of control at the front to win easily, and he was followed home by Sergi who overcame an early incident between himself and #74 Allen Moyer that left him needing to have the damaged nose and side bodywork pulled from his truck. Both of the Anthony Sergi Racing trucks would finish well ahead of the rest of the field.
The Dwarf cars would provide their usual thrills and spills with a group of heat races leading up to a feature that saw #14 Bo Bass come home well ahead of his competitors after taking the lead early on in the race. The Checkered Flag Sprints provided as great a show as ever, this time seeing #21 Jimmy Alvis Jr. making all the early running before being caught and overtaken by the flying Gimmler brothers. After a hard fought race, and yet more cautions to break up the action and bunch up the cars, the Wild Child in the flag-stand would throw the checkered flag to give the win to #29 Gary Gimmler ahead of his brother Mark in the #51 car.
| Open Wheeled Modifieds | |||
| 50 Laps No Points race | |||
| Jack Smith Fund Raiser | Feature | ||
| Car-# | Drivers Name | Finish | |
| 03 | Kyle Bookmiller | 1 | |
| 11 | Mark Nelson | 2 | |
| 98 | Robbie Cooper | 3 | |
| 25 | John Grimm | 4 | |
| 6 | Billy Bechtelheimer | 5 | |
| 151 | Daniel Webster | 6 | |
| 191 | Kevin Macy | 7 | |
| 71 | L.B. Skaggs | 8 | |
| 01 | Curtis Neumann | 9 | |
| 51 | Collin Cabre | 10 | |
| 53 | Doug Miller | 11 | |
| 61 | Tony Carreno | 12 | |
| 8 | Michael Stalnaker | 13 | |
| 27 | Andrew Alderman | 14 | |
| 175 | Johnny Allen | 15 | |
| 75 | Bobby Blake | 16 | |
| 77 | John Gerstner | 17 | |
| 70 | Jeremy Gerstner | 18 | |
| 0 | Troy Robinson | 19 | |
| 21 | Chris Wentworth | 20 | |
| 46 | Doug Moff | 21 | |
| 9 | Ron Armille | 22 | |
| 119 | Scott McDaniel | 23 | |
| 2 | Steven Hise | 24 | |
| Street Stocks | Feature | ||
| Car-# | Drivers Name | Finish | |
| 42 | Richie Smith | 1 | |
| 19 | Jeff Stalnaker | 2 | |
| 31 | Tom Potts | 3 | |
| 33 | Bill Ryan | 4 | |
| 98 | Bubba Martone | 5 | |
| 97 | Tim Quick | 6 | |
| 71 | Jason Warsing | 7 | |
| 34 | Lee Gardner | 8 | |
| 27 | John Makula | 9 | |
| 26 | Bradley Lyon | 10 | |
| 8 | Mike Stalnaker | 11 | |
| 25 | Raynold Lyon | 12 | |
| 15 | Bobby Fudge | 13 | |
| Pure Stocks | Feature | ||
| Car-# | Drivers Name | Finish | |
| 58 | Larry Welter Jr. | 1 | |
| 35 | David Walls | 2 | |
| 5 | James Peters | 3 | |
| 69 | Richard Dinkins | 4 | |
| 99 | Cody Stickler | 5 | |
| 4 | Abe Lord | 6 | |
| 27 | Sherry Makula | 7 | |
| 31 | Austin Roberts | 8 | |
| 88 | Vic Shahid | 9 | |
| 81 | Morris Richardson | 10 | |
| 15 | Levi Roberts | 11 | |
| 89 | Derek Gray | 12 | |
| 158 | Eric Gellman | 13 | |
| 36 | Mike Dubbs | 14 | |
| 30 | Tom McKay | 15 | |
| 68 | Drew Matissek | 16 | |
| 14 | Alex Wilder | 17 | |
| 7 | Ardin Franklin | 18 | |
| 141 | Bruce Pixley | 19 | |
| 43 | Gator Hise | 20 | |
| 20 | Chris Ickes | 21 | |
| 76 | Bret Martin | 22 | |
| 71 | Dawn Warsing | 23 | |
| 21 | Cotee Clark | 24 | |
| 25 | James Davis | 25 | |
| 09 | Wayne Heater | 26 | |
| 6 | Eddie Hudak | 27 | |
| 26 | David Harris | 28 | |
| 77 | Dan Berkawitz | 29 | |
| 44 | Glen Colyer | 30 | |
| 41 | Tara Wilder | 31 | |
| FAST Trucks | Feature | ||
| Car-# | Drivers Name | Finish | |
| 201 | Sam Watts | 1 | |
| 20 | Anthony Sergi | 2 | |
| 36 | Austin Stamper | 3 | |
| 74 | Allen Moyer | 4 | |
| 49x | Louis Potter | 5 | |
| 16 | Tim Sozio | 6 | |
| Four Cylinders Stock | Feature | ||
| Car-# | Drivers Name | Finish | |
| 47 | Richard Kuhn | 1 | |
| 21 | Phil Edwards | 2 | |
| 84 | Ashlee Williamson | 3 | |
| 26 | Nathan Florian | 4 | |
| 71 | Sonya Heater | 5 | |
| 98 | Kevin Stone | 6 | |
| 199 | Robert Carter | 7 | |
| 86 | Aaron Hardgrove | 8 | |
| 79 | Wayne Heater | 9 | |
| 29 | Chris Snow | 10 | |
| 007 | Jeremy Bush | 11 | |
| 37 | Billy Benoit | 12 | |
| 77 | Kevin Knox | 13 | |
| 7 | William Stanbury | 14 | |
| 50 | Jesse Mallory | 15 | |
| 24 | Tim Scalise | 16 | |
| 18 | Bo Denney | 17 | |
| 65 | Happy Florian | 18 | |
| 2 | Mike Feazell | 19 | |
| 32 | Jeremy Sharrone | DQ | |
| 95 | Fred Henick | NS | |
| DWARFs | Feature | Home | |
| Car-# | Drivers Name | Finish | Town |
| 14 | Bo Bass | 1 | Eustis |
| 56 | Larry Hubbard Jr. | 2 | Cape Coral |
| 04 | Rick Londeen | 3 | Jacksonville |
| 77 | Larry Hubbard III | 4 | Cape Coral |
| 23 | Jerry Helfin | 5 | |
| 99 | Terry Taylor | 6 | Dunedin |
| 1A | John Atherton | 7 | Cape Coral |
| 00 | Donny Bass | 8 | Claycona |
| 7JR | Ray Gonzales III | 9 | Auburndale |
| 02 | Matt Londeen | 10 | Jacksonville |
| 2 | Larry Hubbard | 11 | Auburndale |
| 25 | John Bass | 12 | Claycona |
| 33 | Roger Richmond | 13 | Port Charlotte |
| 8X | Rick Brayton | NS | |
| 01 | Ray Gonzales Jr. | NS | Auburndale |
| Checkard Flag | |||
| Sprint Series | Feature | Home | |
| Car-# | Drivers Name | Finish | Town |
| #29 | Gary Gimmler | 1 | Palm Beach Gardens |
| #51 | Mark Gimmler | 2 | Palm Beach Gardens |
| #21 | Jimmy Alvis Jr. | 3 | Sefner |
| #19 | Keith Butler | 4 | Riverveiw |
| #19T | Mickey Kempgens | 5 | Dade City |
| #31 | Channing Conley | 6 | Leesburg |
| #79 | David Slawiak | 7 | Brandon |
| #1 | Steven Bradley | 8 | Inverness |
| #69 | Ric Voisey | 9 | Wesley Chapel |
| #6 | Frankie Hurst | 10 | Land O’ Lakes |
| #20 | Amanda Ferguson | 11 | Montverde |
| #59 | Dan Statter | 12 | Deltona |
| #21A | Robbie Hackett | 13 | Riverveiw |
| #6X | Skeeter Faulconer | 14 | Land O’ Lakes |
| #66 | Ray Bragg | 15 | Riverveiw |
| #11 | Bryan Riddle | 16 | Thonotosassa |
| #0 | Sonny O’ Sullivan | 17 | Edgewater |
| #75 | Curtis Sutton | 18 | Land O’ Lakes |